On the latest edition of his podcast, ESPN’s Buster Olney discusses a slew of interesting topics with Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, who looks back on his first 20 years on the job and ahead to his future in the position. Cashman doesn’t seem anywhere close to the end of the line, which isn’t surprising for someone who signed a five-year extension in December. “I’m only 50 years old. I feel that’s young,” he said. The five-time World Series champion added that he believes “there’s more chapters to write,” including potentially winning a title with a third manager (the newly hired Aaron Boone).
Asked whether there has ever been a specific turning point in terms of how he does his job, Cashman indicated that it came when now-Cubs president Theo Epstein was early in his tenure as arch-rival Boston’s GM. Cashman saw the positive impact that Epstein and sabermetrics guru Bill James were having on the Red Sox with the help of analytics, and he noticed that Boston was outdoing New York in key areas such as advanced scouting, drafting, major league signings, minor league signings and waiver claims. Around that time, he realized the Yankees “should have every tool in the toolbox,” and that “no one in baseball should have a better department in any aspect than the New York Yankees.”
After Cashman “saw a deficiency” in the way the Yankees were functioning in comparison to the Red Sox, he “went on a crusade” to improve the organization. Since then, the Yankees have revamped their pro scouting department, created what Cashman believes is an enviable quantitative analysis team, implemented a “second-to-none mental skills program” and tried when possible to copy the performance science methods of European soccer teams and Australian rules football clubs.
More from the American League:
- The Rays have fired team physician Michael Reilly amid sexual assault allegations, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes. Prior to severing ties with Reilly, the Rays suspended him last week after a woman with the YouTube username Brianna Rah (which isn’t her real name, per Topkin) posted a video accusing him of making unwanted sexual advances toward her when she was a teenager working at his office. She also expressed certainty that Reilly has behaved similarly toward others. In addition to firing Reilly, who had been affiliated with the franchise since its inception 20 years ago, the Rays “also alerted the St. Petersburg Police Department and Major League Baseball of this situation,” team vice president and general counsel John Higgins stated. Police are currently deciding whether to file charges against Reilly, according to Topkin. Reilly, for his part, denied the allegations, but he admitted to having “a consensual relationship with her when she was an adult.”
- The Angels are primed to use a six-man rotation in the wake of their much-hyped Shohei Ohtani signing, which isn’t a change that’s going to faze right-hander Garrett Richards. While the 29-year-old admitted to KLAA AM 830 (via Maria Guardado of MLB.com) that the new alignment will affect his “in-between-start routine a little bit,” he’s on board with the idea if it’s for the betterment of the team. “Whether you make 28 starts or 32 starts, you’re still going to be out there giving a significant amount to the team,” said Richards, who amassed 32 starts in 2015 but has combined for just 12 since then. Elbow and biceps issues limited Richards in the previous two seasons, but he returned in strong fashion last September to put up a 2.28 ERA/2.43 FIP in six starts and 27 2/3 innings. If Richards is able to stay healthy in 2018, he could cash in big as a free agent next winter.
- After breaking out in 114 innings as a starter last year, when he pitched to a 2.84 ERA and recorded 9.99 K/9 against 4.23 BB/9, Indians righty Mike Clevinger has bigger plans for 2018. “I’m not even thinking about the bullpen. I want to throw 200 innings,” Clevinger told Jordan Bastian of MLB.com. Despite his excellent production in 2017, Clevinger isn’t guaranteed a starting spot heading into the spring, as Bastian notes. Rather, he’ll compete with Danny Salazar, Josh Tomlin and Ryan Merritt to join rotation locks Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco and Trevor Bauer. Should Clevinger, 27, win a place in the Tribe’s rotation and achieve his 200-inning goal, he’d accomplish a feat that’s pretty rare nowadays. In each of the previous two campaigns, only 15 pitchers racked up at least 200 frames. Kluber did it in both seasons (as well as in 2014 and ’15), and Carrasco was also part of the group last year.
Cashman is the man. Master of Trades.
5 years $25M well-deserved.
If only they played that game 7, at Yankee Stadium, not the Astrodome, Cash! 1 game away from the WS, neither team could score at their opponents home-turf.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a playoff series, that much affected by home-field advantage. Two dominant teams
Let’s win home-field, away from those pesky Sox 😉
Ughh is it baseball season yet ^.^
There’s an article on ESPN that broke down WS home field advantage. As it turns out home field advantage does have a decent effect. In games 6 and 7 the home team wins 58.4% of the time but interestingly the home team loses game 7 52% of the time. So at least in the WS, game 7 advantage goes to the road team. As it turns out the biggest advantage home field gets is in game 1 where the home team wins almost 63% of the time.
But that’s just WS stats, couldn’t find all postseason stats without going through all playoff games.
@start_wearing_purple,
I’ll provide you with some context. After 2017 ALCS:
NYY was 6-0 at home in the playoffs (1-6 Road)
Astros were 6-0 at home.
Heading into the final 2 games, 2017 ALCS, NYY was up 3-2, final 2 Road.
For that specific situation: (Stats all-time)
Teams heading into a road game 6 with a 3-2 series lead at that point were 11-6 all-time in League Championship Series, 10-7 in game 6.
(Obviously, Now 11-7 all-time, and 10-8 in game 6)
Astros were dominant, 1 through 9 in their line-up, but it’s crazy how playing home/away made a difference for BOTH teams. I used to shrug off, home field advantage. After 2017 ALCS, not anymore… Complete 180, when either team, played home/away.
Disclaimer: Houston DESERVED to win because they EARNED their Home-field advantage, so leave me alone Houston fans (unless you can tell me why your team struggled so much, @ NYY because I can’t even tell you why NYY struggled so much on the road Lol.
It would actually indicate that there’s no statistically significant impact of where game 7 is played. +- 2% on a 39 game sample
Any stats on what happens when a team is down 3-0 in a 7 game series? Anybody ever comeback and won?
Yep, some team from Boston came back down 0-3 and won over NY. Only team to ever do so as of now. And so far as of now, in football, the New England Patriots are the only team since the Super Bowl started to have 1 loss in a season with the 1 loss being a Super Bowl 🙂
When your team makes the playoffs year in and year out, you’ll win championships, and you’ll also pull off a choke job or 2.
As a Yankee fan, I’ll trade that 1 choke job for at least FIVE championships in my lifetime. Just like I’m sure you’ll trade that Patriots chokejob for a possible SIXTH championship on Sunday.
“Pesky” Sox should be sneaky good next year. But I can’t wait either.
Heck yea! “Pesky” Lol. BOS & NYY fought in a dogfight to the end, and BOS won the division, a couple of days before the playoffs.
Between you and me, I really wanted to end in 2 way tie, because of the rarity of that outcome Lol.
Even though the “analysts” said it would be better for NY to lose the division, than tie? Idk how ties work.
” Sox should be sneaky good next year” don’t you mean this year? They can’t be sneaky when they are favored to make the playoffs
Thanks for offering nothing but mindless criticism.
1991 World Series …. Twins won all 4 at home and the Braves won all 3 at home …
Same with the 87 series vs the cards.
that was THE BEST game 7 ever…
This some kind of joke? GM for the Yankees is not rocket science. Literally a monkey can do it.
Your bias is showing.
White Sox rebuild is coming along quite nicely… Why so triggered? You have a bright future ahead of you, let us enjoy the present
a monkey could do it, but not with anything like the prowess cash does his job with. this is coming from an angels fan.
I always thought Cashman was very overrated. The Yankees have won 1 time in 17 years. With the budget they have that seems terrible to me.
More silly chin music…why don’t you look at the job he has done at turning the Yankee franchise around rather than singing your rhetoric.
BTW your comparative model is also flawed. In the last 25 years there has been only one WS champion that lead the MLB in salary. So it applies to all major markets, not only the team that you have a hard on for.
Are you a mets fan? Lol
“I always thought Cashman was very overrated. The Yankees have won 1 time in 17 years. With the budget they have that seems terrible to me.”
They’ve also never had a single losing season under Cashman. Something no other team has done, and many of those teams have had very high budgets themselves. (Red Sox, Phillies, Angels, etc.)
The playoffs are a complete crapshoot. Ask the Atlanta Braves who won 1 championship with 14 division titles, which included 3 seasons where only 4 teams made the playoffs.
Besides the Yankees WS “drought” is shorter than 23 other teams.
Honestly speaking Cashman does have an advantage on and off the field fueled by their ability to out-spend most other teams. However, in the last 4 years he’s done an incredible job.
Just factor in how he’s went about constructing the 2017 team.
Starting 1b, C, RF, LF, 2 impact starters and Betances were “original” home grown prospects.
Starting 2B (Castro), SS, CF, 3b, SP Gray and out the pen Khanle, Warren, Green, Shreve and Chapman (when traded from the Reds) were all acquired using prospects.
CC, Tanaka, Headley, Ellsbury and Chapman were the only free agents.
Yanks have a top 3 farm after graduating several players to the majors, including Frazier who accumulated over 131 PA which took away his rookie status) AND trading away 4 current top 100 prospects in Mateo, Kaprieleind, Fowler and Guzman. Also, Rutherford , who headlined the deal that brought back T. Frazier, Robertson and Khanle, was on most top 100 lists last year. That’s amazing!! Factor in that Clint Frazier is the ONLY prospect to make it to the big league from the haul they got by trading Chapman, Miller, McCann, Nova and Beltran also speaks volumes.
He’s had his misses but he’s been pretty awesome in the last 5 years and is starting to pay dividends.
How Creative
No, disagree. I’m an O’s fan and while there have been times when Cashman has been bad and created mediocre teams, he should be credited with more often than not creating a CULTURE of winning and also doing a really great job of EVOLVING as a GM during a very progressive baseball landscape. His accolades are well deserved.
I’m a Boston fan and while I don’t like saying nice things about NY, Cashman is praise worthy.
Perhaps, you guys should hire a monkey. You’d be better off.
what are you putting in your application?
I’m not a Yankees fan at all but gone are the days of just buying titles … they are building a damn good farm system as well as spending the money any fan would want their team to spend … Cashman believe it or not is a very underrated general manager because of that line of thinking “a monkey could do it”
Cashman has demonstrated two different GM’ing styles. Of course anyone can throw money at the problem like GS wanted to and Cashman ultimately GS run the show while Cashman was behind him playing cheerleader. GS passes and Cashman was able to spread his wings and snow off his skill set, which has been amazing to see, despite being a Sox fan.
A monkey can do it ,you are just another Yankee hater,great minor league system built by cashman and crew.
Do people even really know what their talking about. I don’t recall game 7 ever at the Astrodome. It’s been closed for decades. Lol haha
Apparently not Yankees fans.
Do people even really know what they’re* talking about
ReverieDays, go troll somewhere else
What’s the Astrodome?
– Astros fans.
Hey xabial I got news for you. They didn’t play game 7 at the Astrodome. Lol
It’s been closed for a decade. Lol ha ha. Did you even watch the WS?
minute maid park, huh?
Felt like the Astrodome, cuz of that retractable roof and fan support^.^ and Minute Maid park’s in Houston. Thanks for the correction. I got news for you..
my point still stands
minor semantics, my friend. Wasn’t it Away for NY, and Home for HOU?
Why are you so caught up on that, but missing the whole point I was trying to make? IDC if they played in the Houston Texans Stadium,
Astros home field, was very hostile to NY… (and vice versa) It was a fun series. ^.^ I will forever remember that 1, more for how fun it was, than losing. And at least Beltran went out with a bang (winning Ring) Astrodome, Minute Maid, NRG, it wasn’t our home turf, I’m sorry I misspoke?
“Do people even really know what their talking about.”
Do people know how not to be rude? (While not missing the whole point…) Next time, I’ll write “Home” and “Away”
Switch Huntington in PIT or any small market GM with Cashman in NY and you’d get very similar results. The Stanton trade was a byproduct of Stanton only waiving his no trade clause to go where he wanted and the fact that there were only 6 teams that could afford his contract. The Miller and Chapman trades were only possible because they outspent the league to get A+ relievers and then had a terrible year so they could move them for high level prospects.
With a payroll at or above $189, a GM has a massive advantage over the majority of other GM’s. They don’t really have to get too creative and never need to go through a full rebuild because they again can sign core players that other teams can’t afford in FA.
Stop making sense.
Neal Huntington? Are you kidding? He has a reputation (and a well known one at that) for being intolerable to deal with.
Definitely not. Keep hating though.
Astrodome? That place is long gone!
Well with the Angels going to a six-man rotation does this definitely mean Ohtani will DH part time?
yes, and the days he does pujols will either sit or play first base (luckily he rest of he infield makes up for defensive shortcomings)
Yes Ohtani’s need for extra rest to accommodate batting is the reason for the 6-man. The upside is every pitcher gets more rest, and all the Angels starters are healthy for once.
As for Pujols at 1b, he’s not going to embarrass himself there IF he’s healthy.
Yeah he’s basically supposed to pitch every six days and dh twice in between those appearances.
I remember somewhere the plan was DH 3 days with a day of rest before and after each pitching start
I think Tomlin and Clevinger both win spots in the spring, this is a make or break year for both players
make or break year for clevinger?
He has made 31 TOTAL career starts.
Do you think before you write?
Salazar to the brewers for D.Santana and a maybe one or two prospects.
Hadn’t thought about the cards trading for salazar if price was right. Comes with risk but could pay off in big way as well. Kipnis kind of scares me though.
It would defintely be agood idea to hang onto salazar for one more year but that being said I would really love for the cards to trade for him and kipnis.
This whole accuse men of sexual misconduct / harassment and employers firing because of allegatio s is getting out of hand.
Im all for those men who did heinous things to be held accountable for their actions, but if it turns out the woman lied men should sue the liars like crazy.
Should also sue their employer for wrongful termination if its proven the accuser lied.
Ill have to read up more on the rays reilly situation but in general its getting out of hand and men wrongfully accused should be fighting back more than they are.
The Rays, like any other multi-million dollar business, likely has a major law firm on retainer to consult on matter such as these and others. I sincerely doubt they’d announce a firing and a police investigation based on a single anonymous posting.
Besides that, many companies have non-fraternization clauses to avoid potential lawsuits. Depending on his contract admitting to even a consensual relationship could be grounds for firing.
why not? It happens.
They did not fire him for fraternization, so that is irrelevant.
How do you know exactly why he was fired. It says he was fired amid allegations.
Despite the reactionary belief that all companies will fire male employees over a single allegation they can’t just do that and make him impossible to hire anywhere else without having to worry about the lawsuits in the future.
What incentive does someone have to lie about a Rays team doctor sexually abusing them?? They’re not relevant in the first place to be defamed. Believe women first and then believe men once they’re proven innocent. Sexual harassment is so rampant in society that it seems crazy that this many men could have done it, but THAT MANY MEN HAVE DONE IT. You saw what just happened with Larry Nassar and the US Women’s Gymnastic Team. Doctors have access to one on one time with employees and patients where nobody else can interrupt whatever sick ideas they have in their mind that they want to act on.
If that were true, it would never happen.
How about you investigate before believing?
You are saying guilty until proven innocent
Two words, Duke Lacrosse
Three words: larry nasser’s victims.
I do believe in assuming innocent before guilt. But the sad truth of the matter is cases like the duke lacrosse team are extremely rare. National statistics suggest they’re somewhere between 2 and 6 percent. The problem with innocent until proven guilty means spin can become the accuser is a liar.
All I’m saying is with sexual assault allegations is there needs to be some gray area between what appears to be two extremes.
You’re not waiting for an investigation before disbelieving, so you can shove it with that argument. The thing is when women accuse sexual assault it’s “innocent until proven guilty” because it’s convenient for men! And the blame inevitably shifts towards the women who are then blamed for “leading someone on” as if they aren’t grown a** men who can analyze a situation and see what crosses the line of sexual harassment. The problem with you people is that you believe the crazy men before you’ll listen to and believe a rational woman. You think after the prejudice you white males displayed against blacks for 100s of years that everyone is going to disregard the fact that you’re capable of diverting information and shaming victims to make yourself look innocent again?? Yeah right
“Believe women first and then believe men once they’re proven innocent.”.
Wow, just wow. So they’re guilty until proven innocent?
You just tossed 200+ years of American jurisprudence on the trash heap in one sentence.
If you’re ever charged with anything is that how you would like to be treated?
YES I WOULD. Because worst case scenario I’m in jail until I’m proven innocent. If someone accused me of sexual assault I’d be pissed to receive preferential treatment in court/jail because that’s NOT HOW THE SYSTEM IS SUPPOSED TO BE
Moron
Guilty until proven innocent, believe the women but don’t punish until a proper investigation has been done. But, I believe the statistics are something like 90+ percent of accusations turn out to be true and it is important that women come forward about their abuse more but accusing someone on a YouTube video under a pseudonym rather than to an official outlet admittedly raises some more skepticism
Thank you for adding some statistics to support what I was saying. But to dispute your last sentence, many victims feel shamed to use their real name or identity in cases like this because in many cases, it violates them and they don’t want to only be seen as a victim. Many victims don’t even report harassment out of fear that the perpetrator may make things infinitely worse for them. Pseudonyms are not a means to dismiss sexual assault. If anything the only thing it does is protect the identity of the victim from the media.
What incentive? Seriously? Doctor, who worked for an MLB team.
$$$$$$ is a very strong incentive to lie.
Not saying shes lying nor hes guilty. But lets not pretend lies have been told looking for easy pay days from wealthier people.
Men in power, abusing their power, are getting out of hand. It’s great to see these brave women stand up to them. False accusations are indeed real and very sad. It not only ruins professionals’ reputation, but it makes real victims and future victims stories less credible. We can only hope that the right thing comes out of this situation.
Sue the liars? No, they should got to jail for falsely reporting a crime.
Angels can go to a 7 man rotation if they can teach Pujols to pitch.
Don’t quit your day job
ROFL. Or at least put Albert in the pen. Hell, maybe Pujols has a badass knuckleball, nobody knew Wade Boggs did!
Big Al definitely knows what a double-play inducing pitch looks like to a batter.
Cashman is a smart guy, so what tool was still missing from the toolbox when they offered Ellsbury that contract?
Because every other team has never made a bad call, right ?
No, because the slobbering over a GM who has had more money to spend than any other GM the last 20 years is a little over the top.
Everyone makes mistakes. But he’s had the money to hide his bad ones that others haven’t.
Is he really better than Mike Chernoff, Dayton Moore or Neal Huntington? Could he get the same results they’ve gotten working with the resources they’ve had at their disposal?
Haha – love the downvotes from easily triggered Yankees fans.
@WFG1
Or gave ARoid that extension after he opted out?
Actually that one was the Steinbrenner’s call. Also they thought what every baseball fan hoped, that he was clean and could take the record from Bonds. So the contract was more for marketing purposes.
Facts can get in the way of a good story. Try Google guy if you have questions for the future or just don’t hit post
Like the Angels offer or the Mariners offer.
What is weird is that Cashman is just now getting wider recognition for his abilities as a GM over the last two decades. The Yankees have gone to 6 World Series under his tenure and the worst record the team has had in the last 20 years is 84-78! He has rebuilt on the fly and hasn’t had to tank the team to get over the hump. He went from literally the oldest team in baseball in 2013-2014 to a young dynamic juggernaut in less than 3 years and making the playoffs twice during that span. Incredible.
Owners quit meddling and concentrating on making money thru marketing etc.
Wait – excuses that other posters have used is that GS interfered, so shouldn’t GS get the credit up until he died?